I like crossover stories quite a bit, and the Alien was a creature to tangle with a great deal of unexpected foes. One of those encounters, their battle with Kyle Rayner, at one point the last of the Green Lantern Corps, still to this day goes terribly overlooked by many. Kyle Rayner is my favorite Green Lantern in history (he elevated the Green Lantern book from a stale dust collector to a bona fide second-life hit in the ‘90s), and I haven’t seen a single Alien film that I didn’t enjoy to some degree, and the comics have been pretty damn consistent for decades now. Bringing the two together was a brilliant decision.

The story sees Kyle Rayner called to action to clean up a mess Hal Jordan made a decade prior: he dropped a load of aliens on a planet where it was believed nothing could be harmed and no bad could come of the abandonment of the aliens. 10 years later a ship is on the planet, the bulk of a crew is dead, and Kyle Rayner and the last Lantern ring are all that remain to bring an end to this killing-machine-species.

I don’t need to tell you the story ends on the brightest note possible; DC is involved, and this isn’t a Vertigo release… it’s a bit of a no-brainer that the story will see Kyle prevail over the aliens. But the insanity he goes through to get it done is another story. And it’s a tense, rewarding story that manages to sneak in a little romance and a little humor, which is just about what you’d expect from a tale that features Rayner at the heart of things.

Ron Marz does a good job of crafting a story that isn’t too dark, but certainly works to please both Alien and Green Lantern fans. Rick Leonardi proves perfectly capable of illustrating impressive monstrosities and giving Rayner his edgy pretty-boy look. The two make for opposing aesthetics, and they should. Why it all works is because nothing looks out of place, despite how different these specimens are.

It’s been years since I read a Green Lantern book. I don’t even know where the story sits today, or how involved any Green Lantern is in the DC Universe. If I recall, Kyle was done away with some years ago. I think my interest died then. As for these aliens, I’ll always have my eyes on the nasty boogers. Here’s hoping plenty have had their eyes on this surprising little mash-up.

Rating: 4/5